After he was badly injured in May by two LAPD officers, top Deutsche Bank executive Brian C. Mulligan alleged that police manufactured a report that painted him as a snarling, thrashing man who told the officers that he'd recently ingested drugs known as "bath salts."

But days before the May confrontation, Mulligan apparently told another officer in a different city a story similar to what appears in the LAPD report. He said he'd previously snorted "white lightning," a type of bath salts, a synthetic drug, and believed that a helicopter had been trailing him, according to a Glendale police recording of the conversation.

"I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I feel like there are people following me. I feel like there was a chopper, do you hear a chopper?" Mulligan said on the recording, which was obtained by The Times.

"We don't have a helicopter up in Glendale," the officer replied.

Officials with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, said the recording undercuts Mulligan's version of his altercation with the LAPD officers, the subject of a $50-million claim he filed with the city, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.